Biography - Charles Mason

CHARLES HENRY MASON. The records of Southern Illinois show that a great
majority of its most successful men are those who have been the architects
of their own fortunes, who in spite of handicaps and discouragements have
won their way through to positions of influence and honor, overcoming the
obstacles in their path and earning not only financial independence but the
esteem and respect of their fellow men. In this connection no better example
could be found than the career of Charles Henry Mason, a prosperous farmer
and stock breeder, drainage commissioner for the Belknap Drainage district,
and county commissioner of Johnson county, Illinois. Mr. Mason was born on
June 1, 1864, on a farm near Monmouth, Illinois, a son of Benjamin P. and
Elizabeth (Campbell) Mason, and a grandson of Adam Mason, who was born
December 23, 1795, and reared in Pennsylvania, of German descent, and
settled at Brownsville, Indiana, at a very early day.

Benjamin Franklin Mason was born in Union county, Indiana, and migrated
to Illinois in 1858, settling on a farm near Monmouth, where he resided
until 1865, at which time he removed to Pulaski county, near America,
Illinois, and there purchased four hundred acres of land. He engaged in the
lumber and timber business, operating a saw-mill, and amassed considerable
wealth; at the time of his death, in 1898, he was the owner of a great deal
of land. He married Elizabeth Campbell, who was born November 19, 1832, in
Franklin county, Indiana, and died August 3, 1908. They were the parents of
a family of twelve children, of whom two died in infancy, while the others
were as follows: Sarah C., or "Mangold," who became Mrs. Wilson; Mrs. Alice
M. Full; Oscar M., a farmer in Pulaski county; Hugh A.; Charles H.; John,
who is now deceased; William C.; Mrs. Mary E. Steers; Mrs. Rose S. Leidigh;
and Ira, who is deceased.

Charles Henry Mason spent his boyhood days on the home farm and attended
the district schools until he was twenty-one years of age, and for a few
years thereafter continued to assist his father in the farming operations.
During the fall and winter of 1886-7 he attended Valparaiso College, and in
the next year he cultivated his father's property, then renting land from
him and raising several crops. In 1893 he entered into partnership with his
father in the lumber business and in the fall of 1894 bought land and a tile
factory at Belknap, which he operated until the fall of 1895, when he failed
in business and went into voluntary bankruptcy, but emerged with his credit
unimpaired and eventually paid every dollar owing to his creditors.

In 1895 Mr. Mason married Oma B. Parker, of Vienna, Illinois, daughter of
Rev. I. A. J. Parker, and during the fall of the same year she died. Mr.
Mason then resided on the homestead until the fall of 1896, and for a period
of four months again assisted his father in operating his lumber mills.
Determined to complete his law studies, he returned to Valparaiso College in
1897 and remained for one year, spending the summer of 1898 at home. He then
returned to college and stayed there for a part of the school year, but
completed his studies in the Chicago School of Law, graduating therefrom in
the spring of 1899. During the remainder of the year he traveled through
Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin on commercial business, and then
returned home, his father having died in September, 1899. His share of the
estate amounted to eight hundred and seventy -six acres, but much of this
was considered worthless swamp land, and all but forty acres was in timber.
Now five hundred acres are cleared, and he is the owner of two thousand one
hundred acres of good soil, although five hundred acres are in swamp land
and are awaiting draining by the Cache River Drainage Project, of which he
was one of the originators, which will redeem thousands of acres of rich
land lying in Johnson, Massac and Pulaski counties, the other original
promoters of the project being S. B. Kerr, of Massac county, and Robert
Main, of Pulaski county.

Mr. Mason ships much live stock, sending three carloads of hogs to the
markets each year, and has about fifty head of horses and mules on his farm
and sixty head of Hereford and other fine cattle, the assistance of from ten
to twenty men being necessary for the care of this vast property. His place
is known as the Alfalfa Stock Farm, and on it is situated the fine
residence, Forest View, as well as modern barns and outbuildings of every
description. This great property has been developed through the untiring
energy and perseverance of Mr. Mason, who, when he first engaged in
agricultural pursuits, was the owner of a pair of mules valued at eighty
dollars, a horse worth thirty dollars, and a few old and practically
valueless farm implements. Starting with a handicap of four thousand dollars
in debts, he persistently and steadily fought his way to the front.

In political matters Mr. Mason is a Republican. He was elected county
commissioner in November, 1910, and is probably the only candidate ever
elected in Johnson county who did not make a personal canvass for election.
Since 1902 he has served as drainage commissioner of the Belknap Drainage
district. His religious affiliation is with the Methodist Episcopal church,
and fraternally he is associated with Belknap Blue Lodge, Vienna Chapter and
Cairo Knights Templar, of Cairo, Illinois.

In 1897, while attending Valparaiso College, Mr. Mason met Miss Eloise
Sabine Shanor, whom he married August 24, 1904. She is a daughter of Stephen
and Elizabeth A. Shanor, of Rochester, Pennsylvania, the former a railroad
engineer who died in 1881, while her mother passed away in 1876. Thus left
an orphan at a tender age, Miss Shanor was taken to raise by her aunt, Mrs.
Elizabeth Shanor, who lived in Alleghany, Pennsylvania, and who several
years after her husband's death married Joseph Brodnix, of Van Wert, Ohio.
Mrs. Mason attended the Van Wert schools and entered Valparaiso College in
1897, where she spent one year and returned to complete her studies in 1899,
the college romance developing into a marriage in 1904, when Miss Shanor was
still a college student. Mr. and Mrs. Mason are the parents of one child,
Charles Henry, born on June 21, 1908.

The very obvious lesson to be drawn from the career of Mr. Mason is one
that should encourage the youth of the present generation, or any who have
met with discouragement or set-backs. In it they may see that the price of
success is unfailing energy, strict integrity in business dealings and a
determination to win at any legitimate cost, no matter what the obstacles or
difficulties in the path.

Extracted from A History of Southern Illinois, 1912, Volume 2,
page 1021-1022